Don’t fight my battles, Obasanjo tells children, others

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

•Obasanjo
Photo: Sun News Publishing
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Former president Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday urged his children not to inherit his enemies and adversaries by trying to fight on his behalf urging them to work hard and be successful.

Obasanjo, who celebrated his 75 birthday with pomp in Abeokuta, the state capital with encomiums and commendations from eminent Nigerians including the Governors of Delta and Ogun states, said: “One of my children who is a politician was trying to fight my battle and I told him not to inherit my enemies. I told him to go and work on how to be successful on his own, because when you are successful, you will create your own adversaries yourself.

“On occasions like this, what you find out is that people will tell you what they feel or know about you. What you don’t pay attention to. Thank God, particularly to all those who have something to do with me. Those who have contributed to what we are today,” the elder statesman said:

Earlier, the Vice President of World Bank, (Africa), Dr. Oby Ezekwesili during the launch of the Feed Africa Programme said the issue of human capital was much more important for the African continent than the current incredible debate which goes on all the time about oil wealth.
According to her, oil wealth never creates the basis for economic development.
“This is the truth; the only benefit of oil wealth is if it is properly managed, it would enable you make an important investment in human capital to transform an economy.
“But simply sharing of oil wealth is such a lowly vision. There is no nation on the face of the earth that shared resources from non-renewable capital, non-renewable endowment, and simply by sharing became great. It is the proper translation of the rent from non-renewable assets, endowment the transition to physical capital and human capital that forms the basis of economic growth.

“It is from this place the countries that will stand in the ranking of great economies will not be the ones you see today. How much oil does Japan have? How much oil does Singapore have? Today, Singapore has become a country that the US depends upon concerning its science and mathematics education.
“The most important priority around any policy of government ought to be the one that address the poor; and the most important sector through which you can address the need of the poor, prepare their children to brake up from the stagnation and the legacy of poverty is to provide them a pathway through agriculture and its nexus of food security,” Ezekwesili said.

The Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Ayo Akinwunmi Adesina, represented by Mr. Ezekiel Oyehanmi, a permanent secretary in the ministry, commended Obasanjo for his role in agriculture, saying “if not for Obasanjo, agriculture would have been forgotten in Nigeria. He gave the solid platform which the present administration is building on.

-Sunwp_posts